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Sit in and Speak up

Editor:

In regard to your excellent coverage of the Unified Students strike ("35 Days in the Forum") I'd like to see President Rossbacher replaced for her poor, bordering on insulting, handling of the situation and Radha Webley for her disgraceful handling of it.

The only reason for the firing of an employee of nine years with an excellent and successful tenure is that she made the error of having too much caring and integrity. She's a whistleblower. She tried to protect her students and her program. Well, shame on her.

The manner of her termination is a disgrace. She was hauled out of her office, peremptorily told to gather her belongings while confused students, some in the middle of taking an exam, were also kicked out of the building and the locks on the doors immediately changed. She was treated like a criminal. Webley's recent apology does not change what she did to Bolman and the students. Her competency should be in question.

Humboldt State University has the only Native American Studies baccalaureate degree program in the California State University system and HSU sits on Wiyot land, however attacks on the program have been constant. Teacher losses, classes cut, closure of the Center for Indian Community Development and more have brought many student protests. The Native American Forum (now the Bolman Forum) was built specifically for Native American students but it's gotten difficult for them to have access to it because the university has preempted it.

Rossbacher's refusal to reinstate Bolman should raise questions about the administration's goals for HSU. Bolman was fired out of fear that she might cost the school money, not because she didn't do an excellent job.

There's a sickness on that campus. Symptomatic of that sickness are leadership choices made by the CSU system of people devoted to money grubbing, not to quality education.